We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Curtis Bell. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Curtis below.
Curtis, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.
Like a lot of people, my confidence both soars and plummets at times, but has generally remained strong enough to enable me to succeed in pursuing what I’m passionate about. I think it all comes back to how I was raised–my mom, in particular, really instilled in me the belief that I could do whatever I wanted to in life. From as far back as I can remember, she encouraged me to carve my own path, which fostered independence in me. Rather than telling me what to do like many parents, she left it up to me to make my own decisions. This resulted in me homeschooling much of my K-12 education, which consisted of learning whatever I was interested in at the time. I was allowed to travel on my own since the age of 14, and I explored all over the country. At 16, I spent a summer in New York, fell in love for the first time, and moved to Mexico for a year afterward to stay with the girl I’d fallen in love with. Friends parents often didn’t understand why I was allowed such freedom, but I attribute this liberty and independence as the source of my confidence. My fate was always left up to me, with very little guard rails. This has its downsides of course, but is ultimately extremely empowering. I’ve had my twists and turns, bumps and bruises, but ultimately I’m nothing but grateful for my mom’s unique style of parenting.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
Right now, my main focus is this year’s Butte Film Festival. Back for its second year, we’ve set an extremely ambitious goal to become Northern California’s #1 student film festival. Our first year, we were a festival for all the student filmmakers in Butte County. Funded with a small grant of $5,000 from Butte College, we ended up nearly selling out our venue. Building on the success of last year, we set our sights set much higher for 2024. We started a non-profit, which is now a recognized 501c3, in order to raise the funds necessary to pull it off, and to date have secured over $20,000 in funding. We’ve already got almost one hundred submissions from student filmmakers all over the north state, and our festival is already creating a buzz locally. The festival is set for the weekend of December 6th through 8th at the beautiful Historic Oroville State Theatre in downtown Oroville, and you can learn more about it at buttefilmfest.com.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I believe my three most impactful qualities are my communication skills, my self-confidence, and my ability to think creatively. I’ve come to believe it’s all about believing in yourself, and trusting in the universe. All of these qualities feed into each other, and develop holistically as one increases trust in the universe and oneself. I hope this isn’t too esoteric or out there, but it’s what I’ve experienced to be true in my life. My advice is to just jump headlong into whatever it is you want to do. Don’t worry about knowing enough, being good enough, or starting at the right time. Don’t worry about failure. View failure as a part of the process, and just jump into it. You can really do whatever you set your mind to.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
At this point, I’ve read How to Win Friends and Influence People at least five times. When it comes to manifesting your vision in the world, the only thing standing between you and that dream coming true is often other people. If you can sell people on your ideas and get them on your side, there’s very little that can stop you. That’s what this book is all about. And it offers great advice for how to be a good person in general. The most important tid bit from that book is to always think in terms of what the other person wants. Another immeasurably valuable piece of advice I picked up on from this book is the importance of smiling. You wouldn’t believe how many doors are opened merely from smiling. And using positivity and encouragement to win people over. I’ve emphatically recommended reading this book to nearly everyone I know.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.buttefilmfest.com/
- Instagram: blotter.curt & buttefilmfest
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blotter.curt/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bellrcurtis/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ButteFilmFest
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/blottercurt
Image Credits
Ian Joseph Green,
Mason Nowak,
Braeden Raley
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
